Napoleon was a figure of immense significance to Beethoven personally – as he was to the whole of Europe throughout the military leader’s lifetime – though the composer’s attitude to his erstwhile hero altered radically. Schoenberg’s setting of Byron’s withering ode complements Chopin’s sonata containing his famous Funeral March, heard at the re-interment of Bonaparte’s remains in 1840.

Beethoven Festival Weekend
Sunday’s concerts will be introduced by researcher, writer and music presenter Katy Hamilton.